Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, joined celebrations at Abu Dhabi International Airport yesterday to welcome the arrival of its equity and codeshare partner Alitalia’s inaugural flights from Venice and Milan to the UAE capital.

A traditional water
cannon salute was arranged to mark the occasion, with Alitalia’s CEO Silvano
Cassano and Chief Customer Officer Aubrey Tiedt travelling onboard the
inaugural flight from Venice, along with Enrico Marchi, Chairman of the SAVE
Group – Venice Airport.

Peter Baumgartner,
Chief Commercial Officer of Etihad Airways, said: “Network development has been
placed at the heart of Alitalia’s ambitious development strategy and we are
delighted to codeshare on both of these new routes, which are the first to be
launched by Alitalia since Etihad Airways acquired a 49 per cent stake in the
airline.

“The service
between Milan and Abu Dhabi combines with our own daily flights between the two
cities to provide a convenient double-daily frequency, while the Venice flights
not only support inbound tourism, but are also an important new link to serve
people in Northern Italy.